Authentication of a user and their credentials is the first line of defense. User authentication involves confirming the identity of a user and validating that a user is trusted and can use a computer resource based on their credentials. Most people protect their online accounts using some form of passwords. On an average a typical user has about 20 accounts for which they need to remember passwords. Most users utilize the same password for most accounts just to make it easier to remember. This practice makes all accounts vulnerable and makes it easier for a hacker to break into all other accounts if one of the accounts is compromised.
ID's can be lost or stolen during transactions (whether its login, payment, or other transactions), ID's must be presented in many places explicitly. For example, in the process of electronic payment, ones credit card details must be presented to a counter party. Although ID in a transaction may be encrypted, there are still many possibilities that ID can be lost or stolen.
Static or fixed password is a common form of authentication method in use today.
In the static password authentication method, the user enters static user id and password on a client site and submits. Then the request is sent to the authentication server to validate the credentials of the user. If the credentials are valid the user is traversed to the next page.
With static password, keeping the accounts secure and hack proof is a difficult task. To keep their accounts from being compromised, the user must select long, difficult to predict passwords. Most users use some of their personal information to create their password thus making it easier to remember. In addition, users have a tendency to use the same password for most of their accounts as remembering multiple passwords can be quite a challenge.
Different random generators or OTP platforms use the in band authentication mechanism this leads to hacker being in the same environment as the authentication mechanism.
Multi factor authentication exists and is prevalently used in enterprises, as these techniques are more secure. Using multi factor authentication for anything other than enterprise environment is still a huge adoption and usability challenge. A common user today accesses number of sites and has multiple online accounts. A user today will access one or more private emails servers, access his/her online banks, make purchases using various online stores and check personalized news. For each of these activities, the user will have to login to their service providers to access these services. None of these services use multi factor authentication today and depend on static passwords. The primary reason is due to the complexity of deployment and cumbersome usage of Multi Factor authentication today.
An object of the present invention is to address the problem of the related art technique and to provide an authentication system and authentication method which permit improvement in the security of the authentication system while making it easier to use. The invention, utilizes bi-directional multi-channel authentication. One embodiment is based on multi-dimensional QR Code which provides a vehicle for strong authentication, ease of use, minimal switching cost and lower total cost of ownership. By utilizing the multi-dimension bar code solution improves usability and eliminates key security issues.